Us
and Them
Maybe it’s because I’m a Mancunian, but Michael Gough’s
watercolours of London make me want to be a Londoner. Not resident in
London, which is what I have been for twenty-five years, but someone who
belongs here, a son on whom the city bestows its favours - the best company,
the best bodies to sleep with, the best life and the best death. This
poignant desire to really, truly, belong, which is denied and suppressed
by the resident, is also the deepest wish of the tourist. The tourist
seems to be busy checking off landmarks on a list, buying postcards and
accumulating culture, but what he actually looks for is an entry in the
guidebook that no-one else has - an entry about a city, very like the
one he is in right now. This city has a certain district, which has a
street, which has a bar, where he has a drink, and finds himself among
beautiful friends.
What Michael Gough’s watercolours reveal is a scandalous, terrible
little secret - Londoners want to belong to London too. Gough was born
in London, but his precise, detailed renditions of the city show it to
us through the gaze of the tourist, the aspirant and the hopeless romantic
- the person that wants to be and wants to belong.
